The Amazon impersonation scam starts with a call from someone claiming to be Amazon or an email from Amazon saying you must contact the number to confirm and order you did not place. Of course, the person did not make this order. So they refute the charges, which prompts the scammer to go into a story about how hackers have compromised your account. This gives a believable reason why a person would not be able to see the order on their actual amazon account, because the hacker hid the order.
After gaining trust, the scammer describes how the situation can be resolved. This includes downloading software to connect and control your computer. They get you to fill out a contact form and ask for the refund amount. When you submit, you are shown a message saying that the amount was deposited into your account. They then ask you to log in to your online banking. Which shows no transaction. They then say, instead of that way, they will need to use the Refund portal, which is actually just a system program called Command Prompt. It certainly doesn’t do anything they are saying.
During this refund process, in which they force you to complete yourself; they pretend to be the refund server and make you fill in your information and the amount of the refund again. If your refund was supposed to be 300, when you type it, they add another zero themselves, making the refund 3000. Of course this was not supposed to happen, and they blame you! It must have been your keys sticking. This is where the real acting comes through.
They complain about how they will get fired because they sent 3000 to you instead of 300. They have a family and they will be homeless. Sometimes they even have a fake phone call with their boss where he threatens to fire them. It sounds silly, But to an unsuspecting victim this is what coerces them to comply. Then they lock your controls, and black out your screen so you can not see; saying it is the server taking control or some other excuse. While you can not see, they do some computer editing and make your online banking webpage look like it received a transfer and your balance was increased. They then let you see the screen now showing this fake deposit, all the while complaining how they are going to get fired. Then like an epiphany from God the scammer comes up with a plan to return the extra funds With Gift cards! All while staying on the phone with you, they lead you to the closest store that has gift cards. They get you to purchase, scratch and read them the numbers. They take those numbers and give them to a friend who deposits the card balance into an account and launders it through various other exchanges and crypto currencies. It all depends on the specific group of scammers, and there are many of them. If the gift card method fails, they will then instruct you to either transfer the extra funds to them through a Zelle, PayPal, or Cash App transfer.
This is how the entire scam goes but there are ways to stop it at the very beginning. If you ask them to verify your account information, or even your name, they will not be able to, and they will have an excuse why they can’t give it to you. Always refuse to give any real information over the phone to an unsolicited call and they will quickly give up. But as always, these Refund scams like Amazon, PayPal , EBay, Microsoft and Norton are not real. The actual companies will not refund you over the phone. Do not call the numbers on the emails unless you look at the email address it came from. If it’s not from the provider’s real email then it’s a scam. But the number one way to avoid being scammed is to just hang up!
If you have been the victim of a scam contact the authorities immediately, then visit our section on What to do after a scam